The claim that Elizabeth Warren was 1/32 Cherokee has been suspect from the start, yet the media repeats the claim as if it were documented.

Now the last documentary hope that Warren could prove she is 1/32 Cherokee has been foreclosed by Michael Patrick Leahy writing this afternoon at Breitbart.com:

The slender thread upon which Elizabeth Warren’s claim that she is 1/32 Cherokee rests—a purported 1894 marriage license application—has been exposed as non-existent. Based on a review of the original marriage records found in the files of the Logan County, Oklahoma Court Clerk’s office in Guthrie, Oklahoma, and the statements of ReJeania Zmek, the Court Clerk of Logan County, Oklahoma, it is likely that the ephemeral 1894 marriage license application never existed..

I reached out to Christopher Child, the well-known genealogist who was the source of the claim, and his employer, the prestigious New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), but they have gone silent, refusing to comment on, defend or correct their claim that Warren was 1/32 Cherokee. The e-mail exchange appears at the bottom of this post.

The fallout from Elizabeth Warren’s claim to Native American status threatens to drag down not only her campaign, but also the credibility one of the premier genealogical societies.

You know the background, as I have posted extensively about the Warren Cherokee saga. The media and various pundits have continued to assert that Warren was 1/32 Cherokee based on her great-great-great grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith.

That media meme grew from interviews given by genealogist Child shortly after the controversy broke. Child first claimed that a marriage certificate of O.C. Sarah Smith’s son listed his mother (O.C. Sarah Smith) as Cherokee.

That claim later was clarified that there was an “electronic transcript” of the marriage application, but the certificate itself did not contain the expected information. That left open the possibility, however far-fetched, that the marriage application would salvage Warren’s claim to Cherokee ancestry.

The same reader who forwarded me the link regarding the participation by Warren’s great-great-great grandfather in a militia which rounded up Cherokees for the Trail of Tears, also forwarded me a link to an image of the actual marriage certificate of O.C. Sarah Smith’s son, William J. Crawford, which does not assert that O.C. Sarah Smith was Cherokee:

But what about the marriage application?

Leahy dug even further, and his post has a fascinating account which proves that the revised source of Warren’s claim to Cherokee heritage — the supposed electronic transcript of the marriage application — was not an electronic transcript at all, it was just a newsletter, and there likely never was any marriage application used in the late 1880s.

In other words, the original claim of a marriage certificate listing Warren’s great-great-great grandmother as Cherokee demonstrably was false, as is the revised claim that there was an “electronic transcript” of a marriage application reflecting Cherokee heritage.

I have reached out both to Child and to NEHGS spokesman Thomas Champoux requesting the document originally referenced by Child and inquiring whether Child and NEHGS stand by the claim that Warren is 1/32 Cherokee. Here is the e-mail exchange:

WAJ:

Can you provide me with a copy of the 1894 marriage record for the son of O.C. Sarah Smith which you referenced in various media interviews as forming the basis for your conclusion that Elizabeth Warren is 1/32 Cherokee?

Do you still stand by that conclusion? Does NEHGS stand behind it?

Consider this a request for comment. Please respond today.

Champoux (NEHGS):

Mr. Jacobson, NEHGS is not conducting research on Elizabeth Warren nor are we commenting beyond what has already been covered by the media. Thank you.

Tom Champoux
NEHGS

WAJ:

Mr. Child stated publicly on or about May 1 that Ms. Warren was 1/32 Cherokee and that he had a document to prove it. That statement has been reported far and wide.

Does Mr. Child and NEHGS stand by that statement anymore? Is there such a document? I would think you would want to comment on that, since NEHGS is perhaps the most prestigious genealogical society and its reputation has been put on the line by a categorical statement as to Ms. Warren’s ancestry. If NEHGS and/or Mr. Child no longer stand by the statement, I would think you would want to correct the record.

Will there still be no comment by NEHGS or Mr. Child either standing by or correcting/clarifying prior commentary?

I have received no further response.

There is nothing left of the claim that Elizabeth Warren is 1/32 Cherokee. The documentary sources have been debunked, and the genealogist and genealogical society which originated the story and upon whom the Warren campaign relies are not talking.

One — given what we know now, does Harvard University have reasonable grounds to revoke the grant of tenure they gave to Prof. Warren, the grounds for revocation being fraud and misrepresentation?

Two — likewise, can Harvard revoke her appointment to the Law School?

Three — what fact-checking did Harvard do at the time of her appointment? I know my university’s Provost does a pretty thorough review, as does our Deans’ office for my division. What did Harvard do with regard to Prof. Warren’s stipulation as to her race? Did she in fact state her racial background in any document she gave to Harvard as part of the processing and review of her appointment?

I realize that Harvard will not comment publicly; no university would during any sort of investigation or review. But I would like to know what their review process generally entails.

Four — what fact-checking did the AALS do in the mid 1980s into the mid 1990s for accuracy for inclusion in the Faculty Directory? I suspect little to none, but it would be nice to know.

Five — we know now that the University of Pennsylvania also cited Prof. Warren’s “minority” status. I repeat questions #2 and #3 to them.

Six — Prof. Warren received her law degree from Rutgers, as I recall. Did that law school have an affirmative action / preference policy at that time, and did Ms. Warren make use of that policy?

Seven — did Prof. Warren receive any grants from a government agency in which she stipulated her racial heritage? If so, what did she state?

Eight — it’s been reported in the news that Prof. Warren stopped claims Native American heritage status once she was at Harvard. Leaving aside exactly when and how she ‘clarified’ her status, what did Harvard say/do about that?

Prof. Warren and the Democrats would like to think this scandal will soon end. Not a chance.

Its been a while since I strode the halls of academe, but my guess is that they may vet most aspects of an applicants CV pretty thoroughly, but claims of minority status are pretty much self certified. The problems of exploring anyone’s ancestry makes the proverbial can of worms look appealing. I doubt these hoity toity PC types want any pat of figuring out who your grandfather (or father) is or isn’t.

Which, of course, is the point. Who your ancestors are, or what they did should be totally irrelevant.

By the way, none of mine belong to any protected subspecies, or, as far as I know, led anything other than boring lives. No pirates, Indian Chiefs or Princesses. Can’t find any horse thieves, even. Other than being cannon fodder when some war came along, most lived and died within 20 miles of where they were born.

The recruitment itself would not be illegal, I don’t think, it’s just tawdry and unseemly.

Likewise, if Harvard reported to the government (for purposes of compliance with equal opportunity laws, etc) that they had a ‘Native American woman’ faculty person in the Law School, that wouldn’t be a violation if they were relying on Prof. Warren’s statement, and the usual practice (at Harvard and elsewhere) is to accept such documentation at face value.

So the recruitment (pro’ly) isn’t illegal from Harvard’s end. I don’t know about from Prof. Warren’s end, but all the various EEOC documents I’ve ever seen, reviewed and filled out have never had one of those “I attest on the penalty of perjury”, etc clauses at the bottom.

[…] “THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF THE CLAIM THAT ELIZABETH WARREN IS 1/32 CHEROKEE. The documentary so… This, on top of news that “[t]he University of Pennsylvania, where Warren worked from 1987 to 1994, listed her as a minority in a ‘Minority Equity Report.’” But on the bright side for Warren, “Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are doing a fundraiser for her. And as for her feelings: she says: “I feel like Scott Brown is raising ugly insinuations and I think he is doing it because he doesn’t want to talk about what is happening to Americas families.” […]

I am a genealogist, working on certification. I hope you will post any response you may get from NEHGS. I am a member and sincerely hope they will own up to any errors and not stonewall like the DOJ. Very disappointing response so far, I must say. I intend to cancel my membership if they are not forthcoming.

I suggest that you not cancel your membership if the society remains mum. Instead, attend meetings and raise hell! Contact other members likely to be sympathetic to your point of views and raise even more hell! Write letters to the editor of their publications. Don’t let them off the hook so easily.

2. Warren still has the gender card available to her. Expect an all-out Attack of the Angry Victim at the debates. Brown had better be prepared.

3. stevewhitemd, my guess is that Harvard has very few grounds to revoke tenure because part of affirmative-action doubletalk is that appointments are made on merit.

In fact, an “underrepresented” professor friend tells me that affirmative action is a means whereby the university administration undermines the autonomy of individual academic departments. If you have a discrimination complaint, legit or not, and the administration likes you, they will back you up all the way; if they don’t like you, fuhgedaboudit.

Gee, a cynic might conclude that affirmative action is being exploited by the ruling class with minimal regard for the benefit of the disadvantaged people it was supposedly designed to help.

“Gee, a cynic might conclude that affirmative action is being exploited by the ruling class with minimal regard for the benefit of the disadvantaged people it was supposedly designed to help.”

Oh, absolutely!

Perhaps what I’m going to say may be a bit too far-fetched, but I think any institution that uses affirmative action in hiring will have to demand a blood test – nope, not for drugs, but for “ancestral DNA”, in order to verify any “minority bloodline” claims.

Already Ancestry.com is beginning to offer DNA tests for its members – for a $99 fee, of course. And that’s just for genealogy purposes. Imagine what will happen if your kid is asked in the future for a DNA sample just to see if he/she truly is eligible for any “minority” scholarships or advantages.

[…] first reported by Chris Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in the press, William Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection wonders why the country’s oldest and most prestigious genealogical society has suddenly […]

“The new documents paint a fuller picture of Warren’s law school record.

On the Rutgers application, Warren wrote “No” in response to the question: “Are you interested in applying for admission under the Program for Minority Group Students?”

Wouldn’t the application also have an area where you check the box for racial information, for the university to collect that data? Every application I’ve seen does, but maybe not back in 1976? Interesting that the AP article didn’t simply state that she listed her race as “white”,

Elizabeth Warren resembles a Cherokee about as much as Barack Obama resembles his putative father. While we’re on the topic of ethnic/racial background, Google photos of Barack Obama, Sr. and photos of Frank Marshall Davis and Obama’s paternal parentage will become crystal clear.

I checked out photos of frank Marshall Davis lined up with Obama and Stanley Ann and Obama Sr, Jr and Stanley Ann. Granted, there’s little resemblance between sr. And jr., but similar facial structure of Barry to Davis.

Davis was born in 1905 and Dunham was born in 1942. Obama was born in 1961. If Davis fathered Stanley Ann’s son, she would have been 18 years old and Davis 55 years of age. Not only disgusting in and of itself, but statutory rape of a minor.

If Barry and Michelle’s DNA is present in malia and sacha, the oldest resembles moochelle and the youngest resembles neither of them, but may take after the Kenyan Obama’s side of the family.

We’ll never know if circumstances are other than as presented, but the possibilities are tantalizing.

The fact that Harvard Law School did not vet her claim shows that multiculturalism is just that, an ism. If she took this claim to the Cherokee Nation, they would not grant her enrollment without substantial documentation to prove her claim. But officials at Harvard in a move apparently based on their desire to believe the claim and not make it all messy by asking for proof, used her statement to list her as a Native American when she clearly is not. And check off one of the boxes missing an ethnic group. All of this in the interests of making everyone feel better.

Thought experiment: If this was a matter involving Scott Brown, the press would be calling for him to resign his seat in Congress & go live in shame somewhere.

There is no shame on the left and virtually no fear of exposure by the media since the media does not want to run stories exposing Democrats as venal, hypocritical, liars, and all the adjectives they gleefully apply to conservatives.

Back in the seventies (I started in ’75)my law school asked for race data on the application, and I remember the Dean speaking with one of my section classmates who was a black woman. He happily mentioned that she allowed him to check off two boxes on the Fed forms. I dare say if she said she was also Indian (I detest the use of Native American; I was born here, so I consider myself native), he gleefully would have been able to check a third,without question if it were true or not.

If she were also a dwarf and a lesbian, the Dean would have hit the quinella!

The claim that her Native American status plyed no factor in her hiring is misleading. Almost no instutiton will admint to hiring someone solely on the basis of their minority status. What it does do is get you past the many applications that do not have some form of bias bypass.

The fact that she may have been the most qualified of those considered does not mean she did not get in the the final running by way of here minority status.

And besides, the exploitation of real and perceived inequities is the source of power for the Left in America. The same nonsense is not nearly as effective in other parts of the world. Their focus and response is, ironically, progressively — as in generationally — wrong.

Well, progress is an inherently ambiguous concept, and the generational progressives do not define it and embrace it on a whim. We don’t need progress (or change), but positive progress (and constructive change).

One of the things that strikes me as truly odd is that Warren used the minority designation in the Law Directory, but when you examine her many interviews in writing or her appearances on numerous talk shows (Bill Maher, Daily Show, etc)she never talks about her Native American background–never. Why was that? Most people who claim to be Native American talk about it quite often because they are proud of it. It’s as if she didn’t really want to draw attention to herself. It would be interesting to know if this is something she also kept under wraps in social settings.

I’m curious, just because you’re one of my fave commenters here and I appreciate your opinion: where do you get the info that Warren “came up hard?” I came up hard, and my record as a child of poverty dependent on government programs, including government housing is researchable and identifiable. I haven’t received any assistance in my adult life due to hard work and understanding the value of an education to bring people up and out, but the record stands nonetheless. Can you point to something similar in Warren’s background, or are we just taking her word for it?

[…] bloggers doing the work the media is supposed to do. One of the bloggers leading the way has been William Jacobson on the blog Legal Insurrection. Here’s the latest.But what about the marriage application?Leahy dug even further, and his […]

Given that she is a serial offender with respect to misrepresenting her Native American status (at least at Harvard and U. Penn), perhaps someone with the appropriate academic background should vet her research for authenticity, i.e., do the sources exist, did she use the actual data or were some primary sources “enhanced,” did she use other work without appropriate credit, and so on?

Ace has a piece up that Harvard. Actually touted Warren as a “Native American” in the New York Times.The Herald’s story relied heavily on archived Crimson articles about the Law School from the mid-1990s, a time when HLS weathered much criticism about its lack of diversity.
“Of 71 current Law School professors and assistant professors, 11 are women, five are black, one is Native American and one is Hispanic,” then-Law School spokesman Mike Chmura told The Crimson in 1996, with Elizabeth Warren being that one Native American.

A Crimson editorial from 1998 refers to Warren as the Law School’s “one tenured minority woman.”

Genes don’t lie, but they don’t speak clearly either. If she claimed Cherokee ancestry in the exclusively female line, then her mitochondrial DNA would prove her statement true or false. But she isn’t. The genetic differences among races aren’t that large and after dilution through five generations you’d not likely see much of anything even if she were telling the truth.

How does she survive this, even as a potential appointee for Democrats down the road? Her credibility is shot, dead.

And the NEHGS cannot be allowed to get away with clamming up. They issued a statement, they are the source of an apparently nonexistent document which could have had an impact on a federal election. They owe the public a full explanation.

Also, genealogists have, to my knowledge, been oddly silent re the question of Obama’s credentials. I have been impressed in some of my interactions with the skepticism they can display re the quality and validity of claimed ancestral linkages, standards that the mass media seem to have disdained re this question.

[…] On May 1, according to a Boston Herald article, the Warren Campaign offered two pieces of evidence they said supported Ms. Warren’s claim of Native American ancestry. The first, a statement by genealogist Chris Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society has now been thoroughly debunked in an article that ran Friday here at Breitbart, and another article that same day at Legal Insurrection. […]

[…] Like so many native Americans, she’s been cut off from her people by the cruel actions of the white man. How can any of us of Native American ancestry (I’ve got some Crow and Blackfoot bumping around in my DNA) truly know our heritage, since the white man destroyed all our respective oral traditions in their relentless westward expansion? Is it any surprise that, so shorn of her roots, Elizabeth Warren is unable to pinpoint her Affirmative Action-qualifying Great-Great-Great-Grandmother? […]

[…] On May 1, according to a Boston Herald article, the Warren Campaign offered two pieces of evidence they said supported Ms. Warren’s claim of Native American ancestry. The first, a statement by genealogist Chris Child of the New England Historic Genealogical Society has now been thoroughly debunked in an article that ran Friday here at Breitbart, and another article that same day at Legal Insurrection. […]

[…] the host of “Starting Point” didn’t bring up how her claim of Cherokee heritage is a work of fiction and has not been backed up by any historical record. It also would have been nice if she asked […]

This actually seems like the newsletter was probably what the genealogist had seen all along and that he was cautioning that more research was needed, i.e. to see if such a record did in fact exist. It seems that media outlets have actually been misrepresenting the research process as a claim of purported conclusiveness, which does not appear to be what he had said at all. This genealogical organization itself has not released anything official, so I would treat what the media outlets have said about their research with a grain of salt.

Interesting, are you saying that Child made his comment in the abstract only, not in connection to O.C. Sarah Smith being Cherokee? That doesn’t seem to jive with this passage in The Herald article:

Desperately scrambling to validate Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage amid questions about whether she used her minority status to further her career, the Harvard Law professor’s campaign last night finally came up with what they claim is a Cherokee connection — her great-great-great-grandmother.

“She would be 1⁄32nd of Elizabeth Warren’s total ancestry,” noted genealogist Christopher Child said, referring to the candidate’s great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, who is listed on an Oklahoma marriage certificate as Cherokee. Smith is an ancestor on Warren’s mother’s side, Child said.

Are you saying the Herald reporter misrepresented the context of Child’s statement?

No, that appears to be from this newsletter, I just don’t see anywhere where Child says that O.C. Sarah Smith was 100% Cherokee, only that O.C. Sarah Smith was 1/32 of Warren’s ancestry. It seems like he was saying more research was needed, not only on whether or not such a document existed, but on O.C. Sarah Smith herself, and media outlets have a claimed a degree of certainty that Child himself was cautioning against, as he said “Child cautioned that the search for ancestry often takes a long time and that more information could still emerge as he continues to research the issue.”

No I have just been following this story with interest. I have done some of my own genealogy although I am not a member of NEHGS. I have read some genealogical articles by Child in some of the journals and they are very well documented, which makes me believe his issues of caution regarding this story.

[…] basis for Warren to seek special treatment as a diversity hire, led blogger William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection to ask some pointed questions about the professional genealogist who initially supported her: I […]